“The great work of art is the complete banality, and the fault with most banalities is that they are not banal enough. Banality here is not infinite in its depth and consequence, but rests on a foundation of spirituality and aesthetics.”
1940 - 1948, Intimate Banalities' (1941)
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Asger Jorn48
Danish artist 1914–1973Related quotes
Cesare Pavese (1908–1950) Italian poet, novelist, literary critic, and translator
This Business of Living (1935-1950)
Helmut Newton (1920–2004) German-Australian photographer
American Photo (January/February 2000), p. 90
Context: Since the commercialization and banality of editorial magazine pages have made this work uninteresting, advertising has become an increasingly important part of my work. It is interesting to compare European and American mores in regard to my work. One will notice that most of my European images have a stronger sexual content that those destined for American publication. The term "political correctness" has always appalled me, reminding me of Orwell's "Thought Police" and fascist regimes.
Philip D. Zelikow (1954) American diplomat
Quoted in [Conspiracy Theories Flourish on the Internet, Morello, Carol, The Washington Post, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A13059-2004Oct6.html, 2004-10-07, B1]
Paddy Chayefsky (1923–1981) American playwright, screenwriter and novelist
Lt. Cmdr. Charles E. Madison.
The Americanization of Emily (1964)
Context: We shall never end wars, Mrs. Barham, by blaming it on the ministers and generals, or warmongering imperialists, or all the other banal bogeys. It's the rest of us who build statues to those generals and name boulevards after those ministers. The rest of us who make heroes of our dead and shrines of our battlefields. We wear our widow's weeds like nuns, Mrs. Barham, and perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifices.
Edouard Manet (1832–1883) French painter
Source: Posthumous publications, Portrait of Manet by himself and his contemporaries (1960), p. 98.
Alexis De Tocqueville book Democracy in America
Book Three, Chapter XI.
Democracy in America, Volume II (1840), Book Three